Effects of Osmotica Around the Roots on Water Uptake by Maize Plants

Abstract

Nutrient solutions with osmotic potentials of -70, -190 and -380 kPa were supplied to maize plants whose roots were enclosed in a pressure chamber. The plants were stressed and then rewatered with the same nutrient solution. Sap flow rate from the detopped root system was measured at 400 kPa applied pressure. The lower was the osmotic potential of the pretreatment solution, the lower was the initial flow rate. Flow rates rapidly decreased to zero and did not recover for up to 90 min.

Different responses in leaf water potential of unstressed, intact plants occurred when the nutrient solution bathing the root was replaced by either a more concentrated nutrient solution or a solution of sucrose or polyethylene glycol 6000. For nutrient solution replacement the change in leaf water potential was less than the difference in solution osmotic potentials; for sucrose the difference was greater, and for polyethylene glycol the change was equal to the osmotic potential difference. Osmotic effects observed were due to differential accumulations at different barriers in the root. The zero-flow periods seen during recovery of severely stressed plants may have been due to a decrease in the osmotic potential of the solution external to the plasmalemma of root cortical cells.